1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to floor cleaning and polishing machines. More specifically, this invention relates to powered automatic floor cleaning and polishing machines which scrub, vacuum the cleaning solution and buff simultaneously in a single pass over the floor.
2. Description of Related Art
A wide variety of machines have been developed to clean hard surface floors. Typically, such machines are designed to either clean or polish. Some machines can be selected to do either cleaning or polishing, but generally they do not clean and polish floors simultaneously. Moreover, most such cleaning machines are electrically powered, requiring either power cords or batteries. Both power cords and batteries impose significant limitations on the use of the machines.
Different aspects of floor cleaning machines have be disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,742,546, 3,795,933, 3,921,244, 3,931,659, 3,952,361, 3,972,088, 4,094,034, 4,096,084, 4,118,819, 4,122,576, 4,150,456, 4,214,337, 4,237,517, 4,295,243, 4,322,920, 4,393,534, 4,506,405, 4,577,364, 4,633,541, 4,783,872, 4,910,824, 5,253,384, 5,289,605, 5,371,912, 5,402,559, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material disclosed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,546 discloses a surface treating apparatus having rotatable treating members movable over a surface, a container for liquid wax which is positioned in a compartment and has an outlet at its bottom normally closed by a valve having a vertically movable stem.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,933 discloses a multi-purpose cleaning implement includes a base member supporting a sponge mop type work head and an auxiliary implement such as a brush, squeegee, scraper, spreader or similar implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,244 discloses a floor buffer for operator directed polishing of a floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,659 discloses a floor treating machine supported at the floor or surface to be treated by means of a work disk arranged beneath a substantially ring-shaped stop member, the work disk being detachably coupled with a drive motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,361 discloses a floor treating machine having laterally spaced drive wheels driven by separate electric traction motors under electronic control so as to be driven by a separate train of pulses, comprising means for recording the trains of pulses to the traction motors and means for replaying the record to reproduce the trains of pulses whereby the machine will repeat the operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,088 discloses an electric floor scrubber and buffer having its scrubber or buffer pad attached to the underside of an oscillating plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,034 discloses a floor treating machine of the rotary brush type in which, in operation, the weight of the machine is, to at least a significant extent, supported by the rotary brush or brushes, in which a brush mounting member is flexibly suspended between resilient elements for limited universal movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,084 discloses a method for cleaning surfaces such as floors and pavements that includes incorporating a polyelectrolyte in the cleaning solution and a surface scrubbing machine for carrying out the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,819 discloses a floor treating machine of the single rotary brush type having a handle and a motor both laterally offset from the axis of rotation of the brush in a direction to impart a tilting couple opposed to that arising from operator forces counteracting the reaction couple on the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,576 discloses a manually operated floor polishing machine comprising a polishing pad or brush rotatable at a speed above 660 rpm, pressing against the floor with a force of less than about 25 lbs., and positioned so that one segment of the pad presses harder against the floor than the other, such as by mounting the pad's driving plate or disc to that its plane of rotation is at an angle less than about 10.degree. to the plane of the floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,456 discloses a floor scrubber with a propane powered internal combustion engine which is mounted on a wheeled dolly and which is attached by its rotary output shaft to a circular cage provided with a plurality of rotary brushes on the underside thereof.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,214,337 and 4,237,571 disclose a compact floor polishers including a base supporting an electric motor having a vertically oriented output shaft and driving a circular brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,243 discloses an apparatus for cleaning, waxing, polishing and otherwise treating the surface of a floor, where the apparatus includes a carriage or frame with a handle for guiding and maneuvering, several containers for dispensing several selected types of fluids or solutions to the floor where a reciprocating scrubber, such as steel wool or a buffing pad operates with a solution to effectively clean, strip, wax or polish the floor surface. In addition, there is a vacuum means which removes and carries away any excess liquid, solution or dirty cleaning fluids from the floor surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,920 discloses an attachment for use on a rotary floor conditioning machine comprising a master block which is integrally molded of a urethane elastomer including a centrally located hub with a circular flange member extending radially from the base thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,534 discloses an apparatus for mechanically varying the speed of a disk, such as a floor treating pad, mounted for rotation about the axis of elongation of a shaft powered by a fixed speed motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,405 discloses a floor treating machine adapted to operate as a floor scrubber and a floor polisher or buffer includes a main housing or support frame structure from which extends a brush housing assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,364 discloses a floor cleaning machine including a support frame with a handle attached to the upper end of the support frame for guiding the machine along the floor and a wheel assembly attached to the lower end. A plurality of disc-shaped floor cleaning pads disposed and held adjacent one another such that a floor pad cylinder having a horizontally-disposed and held adjacent one another such that a floor pad cylinder having a horizontally-disposed longitudinal axis is formed are attached to the lower end of the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,541 discloses a floor treating machine adapted to operate as a floor scrubber and a floor polisher or buffer which includes a main housing or support frame structure from which extends a brush housing assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,872 discloses a high-speed floor treating machine is provided comprising a frame, a control and guiding handle extending rearwardly of the frame and an electric motor for rotating a floor contacting pad is secured.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,824 discloses a floor polisher, which causes a pad to rotate at a high speed to polish a floor. The floor polisher has a vertically moving mechanism adapted to move the pad in the vertical direction with respect to the floor, a ground pressure adjusting mechanism adapted to maintain a ground pressure of the pad at a set pressure by controlling the vertically moving mechanism and a floor protecting mechanism adapted to actuate the vertically moving mechanism to lift the pad immediately when the travel of the floor polisher is stopped.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,384 discloses an electric buffing machine and a method for buffing waxed floors. The buffing machine comprises a molded plastic housing, a foldable handle and a DC drive motor directly driving a buffing pad holder. U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,605 discloses a cleaning apparatus in the form of a scrubber that is a motor driven by a direct current (DC) motor driving a rotatable scrubber unit which includes a scrubber disc with the motor and scrubber disc forming a power head supported from a detachable and adjustable length pole which enables surfaces that are normally out of reach to be easily scrubbed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,912 discloses an electric floor and baseboard cleaning machine which includes a motor assembly attached to a medium frame in which the movement thereof is adjustable for either straight line or circular motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,559 discloses a floor scrubber is provided which consists of a rectangular head assembly.